Germany’s broadcaster RTL II relies on monitoring and multiviewer solution from Rohde & Schwarz

Rohde & Schwarz has announced the successful completion of a project at RTL II that sees its R&S PRISMON IP-based platform provide comprehensive AV content monitoring and multiviewer facilities on a new and radically different OTT cannel playout.

The broadcaster has a progressive approach to enabling technologies and is happy to pioneer the adoption of the latest IP-based technologies. By Integrating R&S PRISMON within a Nevion VideoIPath SMPTE 2022-7 video routing system and a HMS channel-in-a-box server, RTL II can playout a linear content stream with commercial spots delivered by an internet-based ad server. The stream can be viewed on iOS and Android devices as well as on Fire TV and browsers. The App enables time-shift and direct access to RTL II’s VOD section.

For the first time RTL II’s OTT channel playout and monitoring is to be entirely IP-based: R&S PRISMON supports 2022-7 signals as well as OTT and TSoIP streams, such as UDP and HLS. This facility means that as RTL II expands its OTT services, its staff can monitor and control a range of broadcast signals and internet streams on the same device without any external converters. This helps RTL II to ensure that all its media outputs – both broadcast and OTT – are high quality. In the event of R&S PRISMON detecting an error in the main channel, it is easy for the broadcaster to switch to a back-up playout server.

“R&S PRISMON makes it easier for us to monitor broadcast streams and OTT streams within the same device,“ explains Dirk Kolditz, Vice President Technology Operations, RTL II. “We believe that today broadcasters cannot look at broadcast signals such as satellite or cable networks in a different way to OTT signals, especially since the number of OTT channels will increase significantly in coming years.”

“Being able to monitor and control both OTT and broadcast signals within the same infrastructure makes it even easier to do that with the same staff,” continues Kolditz. “We have no need to train engineers on several platforms for monitoring purposes. Since R&S PRISMON is located within our network infrastructure even remote monitoring can be performed. And it does not have to take place within special control rooms or even within our premises.“

Another influencer in RTL II’s decision to select R&S PRISMON is the platform’s ability to future-proof its business growth plans. “R&S PRISMON is essentially a software-based product. Its concept of licenses for the available services make future implementations straightforward. For example, SMPTE 2110 will be supported if we need it in our future infrastructure. A service level agreement with Rohde & Schwarz gives us access to the future developments and firmware updates, and also ensures all the technical and operational support we need. This is very important for us, especially during the implementation period of the new SMPTE 2022 technology,“ Dirk Kolditz explains.

R&S PRISMON AV content monitoring and multiviewer

R&S PRISMON is an IP-based convergent monitoring solution for broadcast and streaming media/OTT. It offers multi-standard support including SDI, SDIoIP, AIMS/SMPTE 2110, TSoIP and OTT upload/download. Its future-ready, fully software defined architecture enables innovative, powerful monitoring functions such as LiveQM and Content Compare. The platform features an orchestration-ready design for dynamic and flexible resource allocation in virtual environments. R&S PRISMON is available both on scalable IT hardware platforms and for cloud deployments.

Top Image: Pioneering German broadcaster, RTL II, has selected R&S PRISMON AV content monitoring and multiviewer.